Framing Wilderness

For the last week James Trainor, myself and 10 incredibly awesome Columbia MFA students have been roving around Hudson River valley and the Catskill Mountains in order to learn how America’s perception of landscape has been culturally and historically framed and defined by its art. In a bus named gymsock we have visited the homes of Washington Irving, Thomas Cole, Fredric Church as well as sites such as Kaaterskill falls, Byrdcliff Arts colony, Woodstock, the Maverick Theatre and the amazing Tilcon quarry hidden in the backside of a mountain right on the edge of the Hudson River. Also thanks to some very generous folks up at Bard our group got to stay in their dorms, and we were able to check out a few studios as well as their MFA Thesis show.